Obituary Pioneers

Things have gotten desperate in the US for the Borg. They lowered the hours required by the pioneers to 70 and there was this little SURGE in the number of Pioneers and yet there was a negative "increase" in this country. So...desperate times call for desperate measures. Now they do things like:

Calling the families of the deceased from the obits in the local paper, honing in on the loss of their loved one, promising them that if they only become a JW they will be able to see their loved one again in PARADISE...flooding funeral homes with the "Dead Loved Ones" pamplets. Which I find despicable.

Hanging out in MALLS and putting up BOOTHS there, as well as BOOTHS in airports, selling Their God and racking up points in their "Spiritual Bank Account"

Calling people at home to sell God to them when they live in security apartments and security subdivisions to GET AWAY FROM idiots who do this.

I thought Jesus said that the Shephard knows his sheep and the sheep know the shephards voice? Where does the Watch Tower Society get the authority to designate who is a sheep and who isnt based on their sorry literature and even sorrier sales pitches?

((((((((loves)))))))))) I absolutely DESPISE how they prey on vulnerable people !! That's emotional hostage taking and terrorism.They behave like an opportunist virus.......ack,dont get me started,this is one of my sore spots .........love your posts GET em girl!1 Tina

i was out doing some street preaching one day - with this pioneer bro - a wtbts zealot - anyway - where we lived at the time - was just about the very inner city - lots of bums and general riff raff on the streets

and we were working this long main drag inner city street - home to countless hobo's and bums

i knew this guy was a count time wasting time type -

and that the first incoherent bum he saw was gonna cop this months presentation and more

Haven't you heard, Dubs?Witnesses NO LONGER separate sheep from goats! THAT will be done by .... Christ Jesus at his "RETURN" (not the same as his 'presence' mind you) on judgment day. Imagine!!!But you're right about how despicable it is to prey on the vulnerable.Keep on railing against injustice, LovesDubs, your posts are great.outnfree

Give me a day to find the Watchtower study that clarified this. I believe I actually attended that one, so it must've been prior to November 2000. Basically: no one can read hearts, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heavens and Jesus and his angels will do the separating.I'll look for it and post later.

In a related move, the Watchtower has also announced that the current door-to-door work is not the sheep and goats judgment spoken of by Jesus. For decades the Watchtower claimed that knocking on doors and making converts was "separating the sheep from the goats" judgment foretold by Christ (Matthew 25:31-46). After 1914 failed to bring Armageddon as originally announced, the Watchtower had slowly reinterpreted their prediction claiming that 1914 was the year that Jesus "sat down in judgment" in heaven. Since 1914, the Watchtower had supposedly been helping Jesus with that judgment by "separating the sheep from the goats." The "sheep" were those who became Jehovah's Witnesses and supported the Watchtower while the "goats would be "destroyed because they fial to help Christ's anointed 'brothers' in their service to God" (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, p. 183).

Apparently the Society feels that the judgment period has stretched too far. Its been over 80 years since the judgment began in 1914. They are now saying the Bible, "does not show that such judging would continue over an "extended period of many years" (Watchtower, 15 October 1995, p. 22). So the Society now says that Christ sat down as King in 1914, but he did not sit down as Judge in that year. "Although Jesus is now King of the Kingdom, his further activity mentioned in Matthew 19:28 will include sitting on a throne to judge during the Millennium. At that time he will judge all mankind. . ." (Watchtower, 15 October 1995, p. 21). So the sheep and goats judgment is not current since 1914, it is the future - during the Millennium.

The importance of this doctrinal change is magnified by the fact that the Watchtower had in effect caled their old interpretation a revelation from Jehovah. They claimed that, "The Lord revealed to his people the meaning of the parable of the sheep and the goats, showing how the 'sheep' only would be spared by Jehovah when his wrath is expressed at Armageddon. All this information came not from or by man, but by the Lord God. . ." (Watchtower, 1 February 1938, p. 35). Obviously, their old interpretation could not have been "revealed" by Jehovah since they now admit that their old "meaning of the parable" was wrong. Moreover, how can only those judged as "sheep" be spared, and the "goats" be destroyed, at Armageddon, when the "sheep and goats judgment" does not take palce until during the Millennium, after - not before - Armageddon.

Both doctrinal changes are seen by critics as delaying tactics, although the Watchtower denies this motive. "Officials of the Watchtower. . .deny that the leadership felt a generational pressure to change," says Witness spokesman Bob Pevey (Newsweek, 18 December 1995, p. 59). While these new doctrines may provide the Jehovah's Witnesses some much needed breathing room, in the end they may suffocate the Watchtower with the most damaging and conclusive charges of false prophecy to date.